IT SECURE looks like a video made by a hostage: a nervous close-up filmed in a dark room. On February 16, the BBC smuggled messages from Sheikha Latifa, a daughter of Dubai billionaire ruler Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. The princess twice tried to flee the emirate and accused her father of abuse. He denies the allegations. Her second escape, in 2018, ended with her being abducted from a yacht in the Indian Ocean. Now she claims that she is being held under house arrest, according to what she calls ‘meditation without medical care’. The VN‘s leading human rights body has said it will raise its issue with the United Arab Emirates (VAE), of which Dubai is a part.
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The bands have a triumphant moment for the VAE. On February 9, a probe named Hope completed its 493 km (306 miles) journey to Mars. His arrival in Mars orbit has the VAE‘s space agency is only the fifth to reach the red planet, and the first from the Arab world. After two months of course corrections and calibrations of instruments, it will begin studying the atmosphere of Mars, with the first amount of data to be released in September.
Burj Khalifa of Dubai, the tallest building in the world, was illuminated in red for the occasion (photo). A popular image on social media showed that the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the VAE‘s capital and its business district, walking hand in hand with Mars in the background and a spacecraft over their shoulders. The shuttle is, of course, a bit of American engineering. The Hope inquiry was also not a rigorous Arab effort. Among half of the 450-person team is Emirati, with most others coming from U.S. universities. It was assembled in Colorado and shrouded in space aboard a Japanese rocket.
Science is often a team sport: American astronauts rely on Russian rockets to reach their orbit after the shuttle has retired. And the Emirates says they have learned new skills that will help build an indigenous space industry. ‘In five or ten years I would like to see Emirati companies and Emirati engineers build components for space programs, not just in the VAE but overseas, ”says Omran Sharaf, the project manager of the Mars mission.
Even in scientific endeavors, however, politics is never far away. Signs on Dubai highways that usually warn of collisions or fog have in Arabic “congratulations to the Arabs – the sin of hope has reached Mars”. The VAE is hardly the first Arab country to try to carry out an ideology in the whole region. In the 20th century, Egypt sought to spread Arab nationalism, and Saudi Arabia a sober strain of Islam. However, while they were natural leaders – the one the most populous Arab country, the other the keeper of the holiest Islam – the VAE has only 1 million citizens and will only celebrate its 50th birthday in December.
The VAE introduces itself as a post-ideological country, the kind that would make a national celebration of the launch of a spacecraft to advance scientific education. It is its own kind of ideology, one that resonates in less functional Arab states. In Lebanon, for example, some have noticed the contrast with their own country. Since the Hope investigation began its journey, Beirut has been devastated by a huge explosion and politicians have been fighting in a bankrupt state for months over cabinet posts. Other Arabs have joked about modest infrastructure projects in their countries that have been dragging on for more than six months.
Sharaf describes the Mars mission as a challenge to other Arab states: ‘If the VAE can reach Mars in less than 50 years, then you can do more, given your history. This is a compelling message. But the VAE also has room for improvement in the area of human rights and freedom, as the Sheikha Latifa saga shows.
This article appears in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition under the heading “Hope and Despair”